Désespérément. irrésistiblement. Malheureusement. Orgie de watts. Quatre hommes et quatre machines orgiaques. Les hommes sont les machines. Car les machines ont avalé les hommes. On ne sait toujours pas s'ils s'en sont rendu compte. Tant pis. Il faut s'accrocher. Répétons- le. S'accrocher ferme pour résister à la marée. On est si vite noyé. L'eau est polluée par une électricité décadente, par un emploi naïf de fausse violence. Les guitares hurlent à souffrir. A souffrir pour souffrir. A souffrir pour effrayer, pour faire pleurer, pour faire rire, pour amuser, pour irriter, pour rien. C'est vachement fun. Grand fun. Grand Funk (Railroad). C'est exactement cela, les torses nus en moins, les «jeans » ultra-moulants en plus. Non mais, écoute-moi ce solo. Ecoutez-moi ce batteur. (Regardez-moi ce batteur.) Inouï ! (Jamais vu.) Le son - le bruit - continue à tomber dur. Les guitares bavent des notes inaudibles, qui s'accumulent dans un désordre préalablement déterminé. Vu que tout est préalablement déterminé. (C'est tellement, plus simple. D'autant plus que la recette est infaillible.)

La musique ne s'amplifie pas ; elle ne saurait plus le faire. La musique est uniforme et se complait dans l'uniformité. Pourquoi pas ? Pourquoi pas, puisque le public trépigne, le public s'excite, le public se lève, le public est " heureux ", le public étouffe, le public crie, le public est dupe. Et ces guitares qui n'en finissent pas de duper ! Et cette flûte qui n'était là que pour la forme : une flûte contre deux guitares et une batterie, voilà un combat inégal ; mais on la voyait, cette flûte ; elle a fait acte de présence...

Et ce saxophone : tout ce qui brille n'est pas or. Les watts semblent fiers d'être watts, et les quatre musiciens semblent fiers de leurs watts. Tellement fiers qu'ils en sautent de joie, perturbant la scène, la secouant comme si elle devenait un objet de plaisir. Les chevelures flottent, mais retombent toujours! L'illusion ne dure qu'un instant très court et trouve son impact dans cette brièveté : wow, tu l'as vu sauter ? Marinus dans ses œuvres Marinus dans son entreprise de défoulement public. C'est qu'il réussit, le bougre ! Il saisit sa basse, une bien étrange basse, bien usée, qui a dû en voir beaucoup durant sa carrière. Solo (et de fait : il est seul). Les sons s'accrochent tant bien que mal à une trame. Le show. Amusez-vous, quoi, amusez-vous ! Et défoulez-vous ! Criez, sautez ! Cassez les chaises ! Quelle défonce ! Marinus fait pitié : et si par hasard il se prenait au sérieux ? Le voici par terre.

Binnen de gelederen van de Martin Green-Organisatie, die de popavond op touw had gezet, betekende de beslissing van de Haagse groep Paniek. Een paar duizend gulden aan verkochte kaartjes moest aan de weliswaar geduldig wachtende Earring-bewonderaars, die uit alle delen van het land waren gekomen, terugbetaald worden en de groep The Flails, die in het voorprogramma zou spelen, kon onverrichter zaken naar huis terug. Het medewerkersteam van Green was danig verontwaardigd over de Earrings, die hen voor niets de ingewikkelde installatie had laten uitpakken. Voor het Passage-personeel leverde de toestand een vrije avond op.

Despite the wintry conditions in the hall due to the fuel crisis and all that, the Earring show, using quadrophonic sound was one of fire and excitement - the locals, obviously associating themselves with the band through their latest single Radar Love didn't quite expect the intensity that Earring generated. I found out a couple of new things which I hadn't sussed out before as well. Drummer Cesar Zuiderwijk ain't as ham-fisted as I'd thought and his light touches reminded me of a conductor waving his baton.

Bassman Rinus Gerritsen really got the crowd off with his solo stint. He really manages an incredibly earthy sound and pushes hard on his instrument - both Rinus and Cesar had been slightly indecisive and overshadowed by lead guitarist George Kooymans and vocalist Barry Hay on their last tour.

It boils down to a special kind of individual personality and taste which makes Earring more than just a 'heavy' band. Songs such as Just Like Vince Taylor in comparison with Radar Love show a wide musical range. The act really came together during the latter part of the gig as Barry had been troubled beforehand with bladder trouble and George "just didn't feel right" in his own words.

Golden Earring's dressing room (looking more like Mother Hubbard's empty cupboard) reeks of perspiring bodies. Bottles of Southern Comfort litter the tables and slumped on the various chairs are the four Dutch guys looking decidedly wrecked. This is the aftermath of a concert in Southend and the band are exhausted. They ignore the girls, the promoters and managers who shuffle around consuming a fair amount of booze. Lead guitarist George Kooymans examines his big toe, his left one I think and rubs his swollen ankle, "I sprained it the other day, the ankle I mean," says George smiling. Barry Hay takes great care to clean his Sax properly but drummer Cesar and bass-man Rinus sit staring into open spaces like old men thinking about their lost abilities. But who needs remembrance when there are plenty of 'healthy' young ladies sitting around hopefully waiting to be whisked off to bed by one of the band? The trade name is groupies and I must say they figured quite a lot in our conversation on the way back to London. Over enthusiastic fans? "I love these girls hangin' around and if one is really sweet and she turns me on then I'll take her with me 'cause I love it," says Barry objectively. "But I'm lazy, I don't wanna work for it, that's the problem. I don't want to put myself on a different level, I hate that and I won't do it anymore. "The chick is going to go to bed with you and do something and she's doing it for reasons which I find very hard to accept as a partner. I'm not into using them so I take it easy." Not that Earring's vocalist would turn down an attractive offer, "All I want is a fantastic chick to come up and say, "hey lets get it on," to me and sure we'll just go and have some fun." It's quite difficult to suss out who are the groupies and who are the genuine fans in the Earring dressing room. I've seen familiar faces like the chick that designed the band's special outfits for the Rainbow concert or the unfamiliar schoolgirl fans that stand wetting their knickers just because Barry is actually signing an autograph. "I met this chick in Plymouth," recalls Barry, "and she couldn't have been more than 15 but in five years...? "We invited her round to our flat in London to chat with us one day after breakfast and she was really thrilled, "my friends at school won't believe this," she said. I don't have to rape the birds for something like that to happen. "I get a buzz out of situations like that because you don't have to drag them into bed and make love to them." Judging by Barry's reaction, Earring would probably like to bring their own steady girlfriends on tour with them but for financial reasons, it didn't look possible on this particular tour. "I used to be really wild about that and I still am if I happen to have a chick that is really nice. I couldn't cope with it though if she started moaning about the girl fans we have. It's like a woman who has a carpenter as a husband and doesn't like the bruises on his thumbs."

Naturally the band are very concerned about the image they have with the public. One irritating hassle was a rather dubious comment made by another pop paper about Earring's reaction to a particular photo session. "I'll give you a good line on this one," says Barry, "but it was all a bit exaggerated. Somebody came down and wanted to interview the four of us separately and they said how about pictures and that was fine as long as they were separate shots. We wouldn't pose in a group together because we got up that morning really late and just wore any old garb, for what we thought was just an informal chat day. They could have stuck the four separate pictures together, we try to see it in an art way too and I just didn't want to come across as a nitty - gritty woodcutter so they were offended." The band has had some sound problems as well but I tend to put the blame on the type of halls that they've been performing in. The Southend gig was a typical example. The arena was something like a dome, particularly unsuited for the band's quad gear and on some numbers, the sound seemed to disappear 20 or 30 feet up to the ceiling without really circling below as intended. "I'm really ambitious on sound because it's an extra dimension, that's one of the reasons why we adopted the quadraphonic system - it happens to circulate the sound, at least that's what it should do and I think it's nicer for the people." A few years ago the Dutch group wouldn't even have considered any complicated system but as Barry put it, "the band has evolved at a ridiculous speed, we've always advanced technically but we reached a point where it's getting highly satisfactory the more we learn the quicker we get on. I notice it in my flute playing and singing." A couple of months back, Golden Earring decided that the best way to project themselves in the public eye, would be to come across as a unit. "It didn't turn out that way. We're completely different human beings, we have our own tastes and we're each into different things so we move with complete freedom. "Sometimes because we're so different, we find it really hard to get together about an idea and we usually always agree on the best alternative. Whoever comes up with it, doesn't matter because we've got a pretty good communication system with each other. " Barry seemed eager to announce that Earring's next single will be a number called Instant Poetry although it hasn't been decided yet. "Some say we haven't decided we really don't have an alternative to release. In my opinion we've recorded a song that we really like and we've got tours in Spain and the States coming up. I just don't wanna wait that long for another single." Kooymans and Hay Co. wrote Instant Poetry and I'm lead to believe, unlike Radar Love, that it's based on reality rather than fantasy. "I mean Radar Love was not a thing that we could play anytime, we had to feel it. It was unreal but Instant Poetry is about washing machines, cars and robots, the reality of modern-day living in other words. It's a great song to dance to and the basic structure of the song reminds me of Radar Love. It's not a bad choice and it's the way that I'd really like to present our singles."

Golden Earring, in common with most bands in Europe, started out by looking to the UK and the USA for musical inspiration, before finding their own direction. Their first album, Just Earrings, was released in 1965, followed by Winter Harvest in 1967 and Miracle Mirror in 1968. In 1969, after establishing their name in the Netherlands, they undertook their first tour of America, supporting Led Zeppelin and other famous bands. During the early 1970s, they toured Europe in support of The Who. In 1973, Golden Earring achieved a breakthrough when "Radar Love," a single taken from their album, Moontan, became a major hit in Europe, the UK, and the USA. On the strength of that hit, they became more widely known and toured extensively. Golden Earring had sharp abilities as performers, displaying the sort of practiced showmanship that results from many years on the road. Barry Hay was an active figure on stage, singing and playing his flute with vigorous flair. George Kooymans was an expert guitarist, slick and forceful, but careful not to overplay. The bass of Rinus Gerritsen and the drums of Cesar Zuiderwijk provided a strong underpinning for the overall sound.

David Miller: We waited all day and, once again, were able to be right at the front of the stage at Winterland. Golden Earring was the opening act. Robin Trower followed, with Sha Na Na topping the bill. We left before Sha Na Na came on stage. Golden Earring had hit the charts with "Radar Love." That was the only song of theirs that I had ever heard, so I didn't know what to expect from a Dutch rock band. They were dressed slick. They performed very tight and rocked hard. I remember the intensity they dispedisplayed the sweat streaming down their faces. The vocals sounded English. It was difficult to believe they were from the Netherlands. Barry Hay, the singer, performed the flute. That seemed a little unusual for a guy with his macho look. I remember the crowd cheering when the drummer started the beat of "Radar Love." The crowd surged forward and pressed me up against the stage. They were bouncing to the beat. Between singing and playing his flute, Barry Hay would pantomime driving a car. At the end of the song, the drummer shot up in the air over his drums with an explosion behind him. That was very exciting. I managed to photograph part of him as he was airborne. I thought he was going to land on top of me! They were an excellent live band. I had a great time photographing their performance. They looked sharp and the lighting was perfect. The photos turned out to be some of the best that I ever got.

Gold
The group have recently returned from the second leg of their American tour which collectively amounted to a total of eighty dates which has proved to be successful, they have returned with a gold album and two chart singles. Kooymans is an amiable character who looks younger than his years and is a nervous bundle of energy, constantly moving back and forth with almost childlike enthusiasm, when answering questions. Stips looks even younger and seems quite unaffected by his sudden plunge into success. In fact the whole of Earring have a sobering level headed attitude to their new found success.

Superstar
They take their ten year slog in their stride and accept it as a form of schooling into professionalism. Even now, Kooymans points out, the band want to take careful steps and not let things go to their head. "Sure it does a lot for your ego playing headline concerts but it's no good if not many people turn up. We don't want that kind of superstar trip. In America we would only headline if we knew that we could fill the place." And they did.

Tighten up
I asked George how the audiences reacted to the band. "At first they didn't know any of the numbers but soon they were familiar with 'RADAR LOVE', next time it was much better they knew all the songs." Recently in America European bands have become immensely popular and Earring received a lot of attention from the Press. "They were interested in us initially because we sang our songs in English, which is understandable. I'm sure if there was a British band that song Dutch lyrics touring Holland the same would happen." Earring have toured the States previously in '69 and '70 but this only amounted to a few scattered club dates and couple of nights at the Fillmore. "This time the whole thing was organized much better. I think it has tightened the band up. I really wouldn't mind living in America, it has everything you want. One of the noticeable things is the music. You can turn on a radio and hear good music all the time while in Holland the radio stations play shit. There aren't any pirate stations anymore and even then they weren't much better. The stations in Britain aren't all that good either. People say there isn't much new talent coming out of Holland. It's not surprising when a kid turns on the radio and all he has is that shit to listen to - where can he turn to for his influences?" Where did George turn for his guitar influences? "I don't listen to the guitarists, I just listen to the music. If I started listening to the guitarist it would get me frustrated thinking how much better they are." On the second half of their American tour the band introduced their new keyboards man Robert. He formerly performed with a Dutch band called Supersister, who many people compared to Soft Machine. They recorded a couple of albums on Uncle Peel's Dandelion label. "Rinus used to play the keyboards but we realized that we needed something to fill out the sound," said George. "They asked me to join the same day our band split up," added Stips enthusiastically. Golden Earring was a totally different kettle of fish to Supersister. "Yes," agreed Stips, "but it's something I've wanted to do for a long time."

Absurdia
In between touring the band have managed to lay some tracks down for their forthcoming album tentatively titled "Up & Down Absurdia". "We've still got a lot of backing tracks to lay down, we're not really sure of the title," admitted George, "it changes every day but we're thinking about it. The tracks are much shorter on this album, tighter, I really like it." "Candy's Going Bad" has been lifted off the band's "MOONTAN" album and has been released as a single to commemorate the band's tour. "We were going to do a new show to go with the album, but as it's not ready yet we can't, although we will be featuring some new material. This tour's just to let people know we're still around."

Visually the band are very exciting. What with lead singer Barry Hay, leather pant posturing, guitarist George Kooymans' athletic leaping and of course drummer Cesar Zuiderwijk's kit leap at the end, there's plenty of sweat flying about. And when they launch into a fast rocker - not infrequently - a lot of that energy comes out in their music.

On stage the band is a seven piece - vocalist, lead guitarist, keyboards, bass, drums and a couple of horns. The basic principle with Earring is to layer the lead guitar underneath the blaring horns and with the usual accompaniment, stick Hay's vocals on top.

The construction of most songs is very simple leaving plenty of rope for individual elaboration. Rarely do they use that rope to hang themselves. Only the drum solo and bass solo fell a bit flat, neither instrument is really meant to go it alone, and neither is capable of holding prolonged attention. But those were the low points. The highlight of course was Radar Love, even though it contained the drumsolo. On stage they fill it out. There's the basic essence of the single still detectable, plus a roaring instrumental rocker on top.

This style contrasts vividly with their more cosmic material, like Big Tree Blue Sea which has flute echoes and everything. But at the end of all those type of numbers they always come back to the rock. The majority of the set was used to showcase their latest album Switch, the title track of which follows current trends by including a bit of funk. Like the other tracks it ultimately returns to Earring's staple diet of rock. Daddy's Gonna Save My Soul builds up in a crescendo and blooms out into a foot tapper - Can't Get A Hold On Her the same. Even Vanilla Queen, which sounded bottled up because of it's restricted chord changes, drove a stomping beat.

Now even in London audiences would be up on their feet by now, but in Amsterdam they don't do things like that. Not even a head shake - nothing. Funny thing was just as I noticed the lack of activity they started clapping along to Ce Soir, the single taken from the Switch album. Wow I thought, what a concession. Supposedly it must be disconcerting for a Dutch audience to hear a band in their home country singing in English, not that you could understand much of the lyrics anyway. Earring's concession was to announce the tracks in Dutch, so the between track speil turned into a Radio Caroline sift-the-track competition. Anyway we managed to overcome it in the end and so did the audience shouting in fluent English "We want more" at the end of the set. You just can't win. Martin Thorpe.

Tickets were $6.00 in advance, $7.00 at the door. Don't think we sold out but probably around 1,800 - 2,000 attended. I was in the front row with a bottle of Jack Daniels and remember how powerful the band was. It WAS a magical show. Met the boys backstage and I remember getting a call from the hotel, something about somebody throwing a TV out the hotel room window, but not sure which band that was. I remember wearing a plaid suit. we dressed up back then. I lived just a couple miles away from the venue and put on about 6 concerts there. Jailbreak was getting airplay on local FM station. I thought the band was professional the way they handled themselves and being a young guy still learning the business, realized the historic nature of what I was experiencing. we really rocked that night!